23 August 2014

Kings Cross's younger sibling

| Josh Mulrine
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Has Canberra’s squeaky clean reputation of being the perfect place to raise a family been tarnished… and what can we do to fix it?

Residents of Canberra are typically more worried about a five minute traffic jam then being afraid of walking alone at night. With the recent violent incident at the front of a popular Canberra night club on August 17, this perception may soon change.

ACT police released a video of a seemingly un-aggravated assault of a bystander by a man who was refused entry to the nightclub. The video was released in the attempt to identify the offender and has gone viral with close to 20,000 views in just five days.

I can only imagine the sour taste that’s left in the mouth of our fellow countrymen and women who look to move to Canberra to raise their family. What once was a peaceful bush capital is now looking like a horrible younger sibling of Kings Cross in Sydney.

Now you don’t have to be a clinical psychologist to realise that aggressive assault and alcohol are a direct reflection of one another. Most reported assaults take place either inside or within close vicinity to licensed bars and clubs.

Cluster points such as: crowded bars, waiting for entry, taxi lines and clubs dealing with spillage of patrons over the legal capacity have significantly higher rates of aggressive assaults then our suburban areas.

A failure by licensed premises to discourage aggressive behaviour pulls the tap for these mostly young males to return week after week and continually conduct this aggressive behaviour.

Are the clubs security guidelines dominant enough towards preventing this kind of behaviour or do we need to look at imposing harsher penalties for offenders?

Now I’m certainly not suggesting imposing lockouts or anything that will debilitate local businesses! Instead I’m asking how can we clean up our act and send the message that this kind of behaviour is banned in our well respected town?

I always wonder to myself… have a significant portion of these perpetrators of alcohol-related social disorders also been victims of aggressive behaviour in their own lives growing up…

View latest issues reported by ACT Policing.

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What a ridiculous article, and highly offensive to the Canberra hospitality industry.

Canberra is my favourite city in Australia to go out at night, having lived in a few. This is for many reasons, including:
-Our tight knit community means you’re likely to know someone on every street corner, especially as a uni student/teenager, so help is never far away should you need it
-Unlike in Sydney, the bouncers are incredibly friendly and very reasonable. They aren’t racist, sexist or ageist, and while they enforce a dress code they do not make up their own.
-Because people know what to expect in each club, it’s completely pointless for bouncers to create artificial lines to generate patronage. This disgusting practice just does not happen in Canberra, meaning crowds on the street are only ever due to unavoidable over-capacity issues.
-Drinks are actually affordable, even on a Saturday night. While you do get a few townies having pre’s in the Mooseheads carpark, people are for the most part A LOT less drunk/wired than people in Sydney.
-The one central taxi queue is exceptionally well managed
-There is a strong police presence

And lastly, people are incredibly friendly and sociable. Just ask the buskers who are willing to sit on street corners with musical instruments worth >$5,000 just to make a few bucks.

This is an incredibly isolated incident and the perpetrator should feel the wrath of the law. However comparing this to Kings Cross is beyond a joke.

mr_wowtrousers10:20 pm 22 Aug 14

I don’t feel particularly safe in any Australian city at night. There is latent aggression in Australia at all times when people *aren’t* drunk. Throw in alcohol and it’s a pretty nasty place. I lived for two years in Japan. Didn’t once feel threatened by anyone. First weekend back in Australia got some road rage during the day and aggro at night, before drinking even got serious.

Australia has a problem and it’s only getting worse.

Exhibit A.
Caused serious permanent physical and psychological injury to a stranger.
Previous history of violent assault.
He’s really really sorry.
He was drinking and has now cut down on his alcohol intake.

One year of weekend detention.

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/weekend-detention-for-onepunch-assault-that-fractured-mans-skull-20140822-10746d.html

justin heywood said :

banco said :

Security at clubs in Civic needs to take some more responsibility for what happens as a result of their actions. A lot of this stuff happens right outside after they’ve refused entry to someone (as in this case) or they’ve kicked someone out. But because it’s not in the club they wash their hands of it.

To be fair, we can’t really expect club’s security to keep the peace out on the street.

I think that better and more obvious CCTV cameras might help. If these idiots knew that everything they did was available to the police and the lawyers in high definition, they might think twice.

I doubt they’d think twice because that is what a sober rational person does. But CCTV will at least make it easier to give them a slap on the wrist and or show them how naughty they are.

justin heywood7:10 am 22 Aug 14

banco said :

Security at clubs in Civic needs to take some more responsibility for what happens as a result of their actions. A lot of this stuff happens right outside after they’ve refused entry to someone (as in this case) or they’ve kicked someone out. But because it’s not in the club they wash their hands of it.

To be fair, we can’t really expect club’s security to keep the peace out on the street.

I think that better and more obvious CCTV cameras might help. If these idiots knew that everything they did was available to the police and the lawyers in high definition, they might think twice.

Security at clubs in Civic needs to take some more responsibility for what happens as a result of their actions. A lot of this stuff happens right outside after they’ve refused entry to someone (as in this case) or they’ve kicked someone out. But because it’s not in the club they wash their hands of it.

farnarkler said :

The government needs to put into place a pubwatch type scheme like in the UK. Repeat offenders are barred from all venues and if they’re found in any venue by plod, they’re arrested and charged. It wouldn’t be difficult to implement.

Wouldn’t be difficult to implement, but none of our authorities would have the stones to police it. Hell, we can’t even punish offenders at the moment so getting all the involved parties working together in this scenario would be laughable.

farnarkler said :

The government needs to put into place a pubwatch type scheme like in the UK. Repeat offenders are barred from all venues and if they’re found in any venue by plod, they’re arrested and charged. It wouldn’t be difficult to implement.

We need a licenced venue “drunkers” licence, similar to your driver’s one.

Certain number of demerits points that you lose for being a knobhead.

No licence, no grog inside.

So one reported act and now we’re Kings Cross Jr?

Was there a spate of other incidents you forgot to mention, or do you honestly believe that this one incident has been noted the rest of the country and has tarnished their view of the capital?

The government needs to put into place a pubwatch type scheme like in the UK. Repeat offenders are barred from all venues and if they’re found in any venue by plod, they’re arrested and charged. It wouldn’t be difficult to implement.

HiddenDragon6:00 pm 21 Aug 14

Sadly, I don’t think there’s anything particularly new about gratuitous violence in Civic after dark, or in other parts of Canberra where there’s a concentration of hormones, alcohol and various other drugs. To the extent this alters broader perceptions of our town, it will probably just add nasty, rather than colourful, lively etc. to dull and boring.

magiccar9 said :

Canberra has a disgusting culture at night. I never have, and probably never will feel safe after dark here. I can’t imagine what it’s like in larger metro cities.
We have 0 police visibility to control the problems when needed and our offenders get nothing more than a slap on the wrist when caught.

Human decency has gone to the dogs nowadays and is just proven by the many incidents we see coming out of Civic.

If you’re serious…that’s just sad. I can only assume you’ve lived a very sheltered life. Very safe city overall.

I’m sure a warning from a magistrate will send a firm message to the community this is not acceptable

Assault rates have been dropping and just because this one was caught on CCTV and reported doesn’t change that.

But I suppose if you wanted to lower this rate, we should probably be looking at the slap on the wrist that these offenders get every time they are caught.
It was “out of character”, “I was drunk”, “he’s normally not violent”, “he deserves another (10-20??) chance(s)?” etc etc etc.

Ah OK, just give him another good behaviour bond, that’ll fix it.

It’s probably more likely that the problems have always existed but now receive more attention because these incidents are now more widely reported in the media and the cameras are now always rolling from CCTV and mobile phones.

Canberra has a disgusting culture at night. I never have, and probably never will feel safe after dark here. I can’t imagine what it’s like in larger metro cities.
We have 0 police visibility to control the problems when needed and our offenders get nothing more than a slap on the wrist when caught.

Human decency has gone to the dogs nowadays and is just proven by the many incidents we see coming out of Civic.

So, exactly what part of a 30% reduction in assualt in the last 4 years, makes you think we need to discuss this big problem now?

I also reject that most reported assaults take place in or near licenced premises.

Most assaults take place in the home, by someone known to the victim.

Im sorry to bring you to reality, but these incidents happen much more often than is reported in the media.

It’s only on this occasion that it was captured on CCTV.

I don’t think there would be a modern city (and some smaller regional areas) that wouldn’t have these issues.

Someone who thinks that Canberra isn’t a safe place based off that one video is a little precious.

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